台南人劇團

日期：二零一二年六月二十五日

地點：台南人劇團排練場

排練記錄：吳政翰

Tilmann和演員們討論上週排練後的感想，並特別提到了這部劇本的一個主題：「如果我是別人的話」。這個主題，在演員和角色上皆可見一斑。每個演員都在扮演與自己截然不同角色，而這些角色在劇中也不停地渴望成為其他人。從上個星期的排練中，我發現，導演有時要求演員們去揣摩特屬於每個角色的肢體和聲音，有時卻沒有，這點讓演員們相當困擾。

有演員表示了他的不確定感，不知何時該扮演自己、何時該扮演角色，其他演員也有同樣的感覺，演起來也覺得有點不太踏實。關於這個問題，Tilmann則認為，這個劇本並不需要一個統一的邏輯，他會試著避免對此劇套用單一規則，他主要所關照的是，如何讓每一景產生最大的戲劇能量。整齣戲唯一不變的邏輯是：五位演員在說故事。有些演員同意導演的看法，並說道：「過多刻意的角色扮演可能會讓觀眾太過於去注意我們如何演出角色、如何變成其他人，但我們永遠不可能真正成為這些角色。如果我們太著眼於模仿這個點上，表演就會逐漸尷尬、呆板、了無新意，最後，觀眾也會覺得很無趣。」於此，大家似乎達成共識：劇場裡「說故事」不只是表演上的模仿，產生寫實效果、使觀眾相信眼前所見的事物；劇場的樂趣，不是在於想辦法隱藏演員和角色間永遠無法彌蓋的裂縫，而是在於如何擴大並且重新發現這樣的裂縫。

Tilmann discusses with the actors their feelings about last week’s rehearsal and brings to their attention one of the play’s main themes: if I were someone else. This theme can be seen in both actors and characters. While each actor plays characters drastically different from themselves, these characters yearn to be others. During last week’s rehearsal, I’ve found that Tilmann sometimes asks the actors to imitate each character’s voice and body which reflect his or her sex and age, while sometimes not. This actually confounds the actors.  

Some expresses their uncertainty about when to play himself or when to impersonate characters. Other actors all agree with him and feel ungrounded. In response to their question, Tilmann thinks, a consistent logic is not necessary in this play. He tries to avoid applying one single principle to the entire play and making every scene predictable. Rather, his main concern is to find a way to produce the biggest dramatic momentum for each scene. Throughout the whole play, the only consistent logic is the fact that there are five actors telling a story. One of the actors seconds the director’s idea and says, “Too much impersonation may make the audience pay too much attention to how we act out the roles, how we pretend to be other people. Yet we will never really be able to become them. If we focus heavily on imitation, the performance will gradually get awkward, mechanical, and banal. Ultimately, the audience will get bored.” Here, everyone seems to reach a conclusion: storytelling in the theater is more than mimetic acting, which aims to produce make-believe effects, and thatthe pleasure of the theater is not to hide the rift between actor and character that never disappears but to widens or rediscovers it. 

日期：二零一二年六月二十八日

地點：台北歌德學院、台南人劇團排練室

下午：新書發表會讀劇表演；晚上：一般排練

 排練記錄：吳政翰

新書發表會上的讀劇表演進行得很順利，現場觀眾的回響也相當好。Tilmann說道，整個排練過程中，他不停地在挖掘每個演員的特質，並試圖以各種方法，來將這個劇本與台灣文化和社會現況作連結。對他而言，這整個過程充滿未知和不確定感，但換個角度想，就是充滿各種可能性，許多驚喜可能會隨時迸出，這點相當刺激。演員們也有同樣的感覺，劭婕就表示，「這次的排練就像冒險一樣，一開始我會存疑，也不確定我們現在到底在哪裡，但是多次經歷這樣不確定感之後，我好像更加了解劇中的角色，也更享受排練的過程。」另外，Tilmann也提到，這個劇本以三個面向來探討「疏離」這個主題：社會上的隔離、人與人之間的陌生、對自我的叛逃。劇作家希梅芬尼以他怪誕而強烈的風格，將這些面向相互串連起來，呈現出三種不同的聲音：「我想要變成那個人」、「我不想要我現在的樣子」及「還好我不是像那個人一樣」。

演員們晚上繼續工作。由於導演所需的平台已經搭建好，演員們可以發展更多互動，互動的對象包括了其他演員、平台和其他空間區塊。首先，演員們和觀眾玩起了「捉迷藏」，他們躲在平台後方，漸漸地將他們身體各部位從平台邊線浮現出來，有頭、頭髮、四肢、舌頭和五官，以不同地速度進行。Tilmann接著要演員改變他們身體與平台的互動模式，將平台轉化成其他地點。於是，他們有的在平台上翻滾，有的爬上爬下，也有的在上面緩慢地行走，想跨越平台，猶如涉足在湍流之中。

藉由不斷改變演員之間的相對位置，Tilmann也將角色之間的張力和衝突「空間化」。他們有時逃離、親近、碰撞對方，有時模擬也諧擬彼此的動作，有時在舞台上踱步，有時交流眼神、扭打、擁抱、蹲下、躺下、暫停、躡步、相互平行、依偎、追逐，有時跨越對方的身體或在對方身體上面爬上爬下，有時交纏到無法分離，有時甩對方巴掌、親吻、再將吻痕擦去。

接著，Tilmann和彥斌工作第九景。「這個老人很努力地想要把話講清楚，但還是作不到！」Tilmann開始在排練場上找尋更多的道具，結果他找到了一些餅乾。他將所有的餅乾塞進彥斌的嘴裡，並要他把話講清楚，而且不能掉一點餅乾屑。Tilmann又將彥斌從一位老人轉變成一個年輕又健壯的小伙子。彥斌所扮演的小伙子嘲笑、鄙視他先前所扮演的老人；這同時，又好像是彥斌身為演員本人在對他所扮演的這個老人的行為作出批判。於此，這景的辯證關係不僅存在於角色之間，也在角色和演員之間可見一斑。

Date: 06/28/12

Place: Goethe Institute and Rehearsal Studio

Afternoon: Reading Performance; Evening: Rehearsal

The reading in the book launch conference goes smoothly, and the audience’s feedback is pretty positive. Tilmann says, throughout the rehearsal process, he has been excavating each actor’s distinctive quality and trying to find different ways to connect this play with Taiwan’s various cultures and reflects its status quo. To him, the whole process is so uncertain that it is full of all kinds of possibilities, and many surprises would pop out at any moment, which is very exciting. The actors also have the same feeling. As Shaojie says, “The rehearsal feels like an adventure. At first, I felt skeptical and wasn’t sure of where we were going, but after having experienced more of such ‘uncertainty,’ I seemed to understand the characters better and started enjoying the process.”  Tilmann also mentions that the play deals with the theme of strangeness in three aspects: strangeness in society, between people, and within one’s self. Through his idiosyncratic dramaturgy, the playwright Schimmelfennig interconnects these aspects with one another, expressing three different kinds of voices: “I want to become that person,” “I hate who I am,” and “I’m glad I’m not that person.”

The actors continue to work in the evening. Since the platform stage has been built in the rehearsal room, the actors can develop more interactions with one another and the set. First, they play “hide-and-seek” with the watchers. They hide themselves behind the platform, and their isolated body parts, such as heads, hair, limbs, tongues, and facial features, emerge from the edge of the platform in various speeds. Tilmann then asks the actors to reconfigure the platform into different places by changing the way their bodies interact with it. They roll on the platform, climb up and down it, and trudge over it as if they were wading through a torrential river.

Tilmann also spatializes the characters’ tensions and conflicts by relocating the actors’ relative positions. They move away from, get close to, and collide with each other; they mirror and mimic each other’s movements; they stomp on the platform; they share eye contacts, wrestle, embrace, squat, parallel, tiptoe, cuddle, pause, lie down, and chase; they traverse and climb up on each other’s body; they get entangled, slap each other, kiss, and wipe off the kiss.

Subsequently, Tilmann works with Yenbin on Scene 9. “The old man tries hard to make his speech clear but still can’t make it!” Tilmann starts searching for more props in the rehearsal room, and he finds some cookies. He stuffs all the cookies into Yenbin’s mouth and asks Yenbin to talk clearly without dropping any cookie crumb. Tilmann then drastically subverts Yenbin’s old man into a strong, exuberant young guy. Yenbin-Young Man taunts and despises Yenbin-Old Man. Meanwhile, it feels as if Yenbin as an actor also comments on the aging character he plays. Thus, the dialectics in this scene exists in the relationship between not only characters but also actor and character.